In the building industry, exterior wall cladding typically is fabricated onsite during the construction of a building. Exterior wall claddings can include various combinations of features that are selected depending upon the building location, desired performance characteristics of the exterior walls, and budgeted cost for the projects.
While exterior wall cladding systems sometimes are prefabricated off site in panel systems, they typically do not contain drainage features. The lack of drainage features can be attributed in part to the reliance on factory inspection prior to shipment to ensure the integrity of the panel, as well as the fact that panel moisture failure typically is limited to the panel itself. More significantly, to date there has not existed efficient and aesthetically acceptable means to divert water from the drainage plane of an exterior wall cladding panel. Traditional onsite-constructed exterior wall cladding drainage features typically include either a starter track or some type of flashing to remove moisture from the interior of a wall. The use of a starter track in a prefabricated wall panel system is impractical because the track would direct moisture from the panel into the joint between the installed panels. The use of flashing with a prefabricated wall panel system is equally impractical due to the difficulties arising from the handling and installation of flashing, as well as the inadequate moisture removal performance that would result.
Thus, there is a need for drainage systems for exterior wall panel systems that overcome some of the limitations of the current technology. Accordingly, the present disclosure provides exterior wall panel systems that address these issues.